Is Kempton a real test of stamina?

As Jimmy Tarbuck used to say on Winner Takes All, we have a difference of opinion, Geoffrey.

The question is whether Kempton's three-mile chase course is testing or not. Received opinion says it's a sharp track - that if you've got a doubtful stayer, this is the place to be - but that view has increasingly been challenged.

If you're a punter, particularly if you're contemplating a bet in Boxing Day's Pertemps King George VI Chase, this question has to be addressed.

"I think it's a bit of both," said Wantage trainer Henrietta Knight, who runs Edredon Bleu in next Tuesday's big race. The eight-year-old gelding won the 2000 Cheltenham Festival's two-mile Queen Mother Champion Chase in March, but now tries a trip of beyond two-and-a-half miles.

"It's sharp and flat - a quick track, but horses do tend to go very fast there. If the pace is strong it might take a bit of getting," she said.

Her husband, 1967 Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Terry Biddlecombe, says the ground and style of racing most suited to the track are the key elements. "The course and fences at Kempton encourage horses to go off fast and travel at a high cruising speed," he said. "If it's good ground, a horse with doubtful stamina would get the trip. But when it's soft or heavy, horses are still tempted to go that same pace.

"The fences come along rapidly, allowing jockeys no chance to give their horses a breather. You have to hold a prominent position throughout and if your horse makes a mistake, it's difficult to make up the lost ground.

"You need a close-up position turning into the straight because the last three fences fire at you especially quick and the run to the winning post is short. Front-runners do win there and we'll have three of them - the French horse First Gold, Nigel Twiston-Davies's Beau and our own - taking each other on next Tuesday. It's all good fun."